by George Lewinnek ·
Friday, March 27, 2026
Because a toxic class of chemicals, PFAS, has leaked from the former Harvard landfill into the well water of homes on and near Depot Road, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, or MassDEP, ordered the town last year to provide remediation.
The town has been providing bottled water to homes with tainted well water. Now, Director of Public Works Eric Ryder expects that a better solution will be available around the end of April, when town water supplied from Devens and free of PFAS will reach the water mains on Depot Road. For two other PFAS areas in town there are no projected dates for an end to the problem, but for this site, an end date is near.
Up until 1984, Harvard buried trash in a landfill. Subsequent testing showed that the trash included significant amounts of PFAS. That landfill is now the site for both the Transfer Station and the Department of Public Works. Groundwater flowing through the landfill reaches the private wells of homes on and near Depot Road.
To Harvard’s north, Devens has an ample water supply with filters that effectively remove PFAS. Their wells and their filters have the capacity to supply all of Harvard. The town voted in 2023 to connect the Devens water system to the Harvard water system, pretty much abandoning the current wells.
The last step in connecting Harvard has been arranging with National Grid for an electric power supply to the pumps. Ryder expects that to be completed by the end of April. For emergencies when the power is out, the pumps have backup electric generators on site.
Chris Mitchell, who is chair of the Water Commission and the Board of Health, and a member of the Fort Devens Restoration Advisory Board, reports that once the connections to Devens water are completed, the mains in Harvard will need to be flushed. That can be done quickly. Then it will be possible for those on Depot Road and the nearby streets to connect to this new and safe water supply. The list of homes includes six on Depot Road, two on Under Pin Hill Road, one on Pattee Road, and one on Old Mill Road.
The town will arrange for connections for those whose private wells have been contaminated. The plans and timing for these connections will be announced later.
For those whose private wells are not contaminated, the responsibility remains with the homeowner for permits, fees, and arranging with a contractor or plumber for connecting the water mains to the house.
There are other PFAS problems in town. Contamination of groundwater leaching out of Devens has affected the northernmost portion of town, in an area east of Devens, near Blanchard Road and Cold Spring Brook. A federally funded Superfund project that began two years ago has taken responsibility for cleanup of this contamination.
Owners of a home on Warren Avenue, east of Bare Hill Pond, found last year that their well water had very high levels of PFAS. Since then, other homes in this vicinity have been tested and found to have high levels. James Garreffi, director of public health at the Nashoba Associated Boards of Health, said about the source of the Warren Avenue contamination, “We are still scratching our heads.”
Because the source is unknown, MassDEP has taken on the responsibility for monitoring the Warren Avenue hot spot.
As for the Depot Road area, the town has been providing bottled water to those affected since September 2025. Residents use the bottled water for all of their consumption—for drinking, for brushing teeth, and for cooking. Even making a simple pot of spaghetti requires bottled water to cook the pasta.
Lisa Aciukewicz (a co-owner of the Press), who lives on Depot Road and has a contaminated well, is one of those who has depended on bottled water. She wrote in an email, “And I have to say … happy for the water, but it’s a pain to have to go to the cooler 100 times a day!”
PFAS, the forever chemicals
“PFAS” is an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. In the language of chemists, “alkyl” refers to chains of carbon atoms in a molecule. “Per” means that fluorine atoms fill all the available places in the carbon chain, while “poly” means there are many fluorine atoms in the molecule. For nonchemists these substances include Teflon, Scotchgard, fire-fighting foam, insulation for electronic wires, and ingredients for paint, mascara, and liquid lipstick.
The durability of PFAS continues after the objects made from them are discarded. Time has no effect, nor is there any effect by the soil organisms that cause decay in natural materials. PFAS are “forever chemicals.”
The first-discovered member of the PFAS family was Teflon, made by accident in a Dupont lab in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1938. Since then, the use of these compounds has exploded. According to data and statistics provider Statista, the global market for PFAS was $29.5 billion in 2023, projected to reach $51.7 billion by 2034.
By 1998, the United States Environmental Protection Agency became aware that these substances pose health risks. The risks include cancers, and most especially kidney cancer. There are risks to fetal and childhood development, as well as liver, immune system, and hormonal problems.
—GL